A Violent Land Riot Has Left Eight Dead In China

Villagers carry police
shields taken from police injured during clashes at Fuyou village
in Jinning county, Kunming, Yunnan province, October 15,
2014.Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) - Eight people have died in a clash between
construction workers and villagers in southwestern China over a
land dispute, the government and Chinese media said on Wednesday,
in the latest bout of rural unrest in the world's most populous
country.

The government of Jinning county near Kunming, the capital of
Yunnan province, said on its official microblog that a fight
broke out between workers building a trading and logistics center
and the residents of a village.

Six of the dead in Tuesday's incident were workers and the other
two villagers, while 18 people were injured, one of them
seriously, the government said.

Pictures on the popular microblogging site Weibo, which Reuters
could not independently verify, showed what appeared to be bodies
lying in the street and construction workers tied up, along with
a large number of riot police.

The government said the police would carry out a "legal,
objective, fair and just" probe and punish lawbreakers.

The respected Chinese magazine Caixin said a previous clash in
June saw villagers accusing the government of illegally seizing
the land for the project.

The report said some villagers had told the magazine that people
in "black uniforms", some with shields bearing police markings,
had attacked them, and the villagers had fought back.

Land disputes are one of the main causes of the tens of thousands
of protests across China each year. Most go unreported, though
some, such as a revolt in the southern village of Wukan in 2011,
have attained a high profile and prompted promises of action by
Beijing.

China's slowing economy has reduced tax revenues for local
governments at a time when the cooling property market has also
dampened land sales, an important source of government income.

The unrest in Yunnan comes as the ruling Communist Party meets
next week for a conclave to discuss how to strengthen the rule of
law, in hopes of damping instability that is greatly feared by
the party.

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